Fico: Slovakia and Czech Republic to Resume Joint Government Talks

Bratislava, 8 January (TASR) - Slovakia and the Czech Republic will return to holding joint government negotiations, Premier Robert Fico (Smer-SD) announced at a press conference on Thursday following a meeting with his Czech counterpart Andrej Babis, adding that the the next meeting between the cabinets will take place in the Czech Republic on 31 March. "At today's meeting, the prime minister and I agreed to continue with joint government negotiations. The agreement also stipulates that the next meeting will take place in the Czech Republic," stated Fico, noting that he plans to convene a meeting in Slovakia with the Czech premier and Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker as soon as possible as part of the Austerlitz Format (S3: Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia), which Slovakia is currently chairing. He also mentioned the upcoming informal summit on 12 February, describing it as a very important meeting. One of the items on the agenda concerns competitiveness. After 1 July, Slovakia will take over the presidency of the Visegrad Four (V4: the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia). "We'll be extremely active and will do our best to ensure that the V4 regains the strength that it used to have in the past, a strength that lay in the ability of the four EU member states to independently form positions and opinions that were able to influence internal life of Brussels," emphasised Fico alongside Babis, adding that he respects the fact that the future course of the V4 will be influenced by the election awaiting Hungary in April. am/df